Adam Gase on injured offensive line: If you’ve got a pulse, you’re in the mix

Posted by Michael David Smith on November 10, 2018, 5:53 AM EST

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The Dolphins’ injury-plagued offensive line could be a problem on Sunday in Green Bay.

Left guard Ted Larsen is listed as doubtful for Sunday with a neck injury, while left tackle Laremy Tunsil and right tackle Ja'Wuan James are both listed as questionable. Head coach Adam Gase said he doesn’t know what his starting five will be, but they’re going to take anyone who can play.

Gase said the team is still struggling to replace Josh Sitton, a Pro Bowl guard they signed this offseason with the thought that he would make a big difference up front. Sitton suffered a season-ending injury in Week One.

“You had to bring up Sitton,” Gase said. “That one hurt because it was early. He did such a great job for us, starting in the spring. . . . That hurt us. When [Sitton] went down, that hurt us. Like everybody says around here, when the big guy went down, that stung us pretty good.”

Counting Sitton, the Dolphins could be down as many as four starters on the line on Sunday. That won’t make Brock Osweiler‘s life easy.

29 responses to “Adam Gase on injured offensive line: If you’ve got a pulse, you’re in the mix”

Miami’s OL has been an issue for almost a decade now. Something is fundamentally wrong in SFla. The time and energy trying to fix the issues, drafting guys, searching out FA’s… Yet every year they resemble revolving doors on pass protection and get little to no push on running downs.

The amount of injuries don’t help either. Whether that’s on the coaches, the fitness trainers, the medical team or a combination of all three is an unknown. But whatever the philosophy on the team is it needs to change or it’ll just be more of the same for the next ten years.

It goes back to the training staff and themselves and the CBA. Training staff because they just dont work out and train like they should anymore, The players union and the CBA agreement only allows x amount of contact practices so now the players have gotten soft.

lsuphil says:
November 10, 2018 at 6:01 am
Miami’s OL has been an issue for almost a decade now. Something is fundamentally wrong…
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Pah! They’re 5-4 and yet it sounds like Gase is already practicing excuses for why the season was a failure, let alone this next game. But the Pats’ O-line was an injury plagued (and SB payday depleted) patchwork for many years – which is why they talked OL-coach Scarnecchia out of retirement in 2016 – and he’s been needed this season as the line has mostly been without half it’s guys (Cannon and Mason injuries, Brown illness, both Schwenke and 1st-round rookie Wynn on IR) – and this is better than some recent years. I’m sure other teams have problems too. So it’s not “fundamentally wrong” in Miami, it’s just tough.

The average DT in the 1960s was 6-foot-2 and 256 pounds. The average now is 6-foot-4 and over 300 pounds. Plus, they’re FASTER and STRONGER.

Please explain how the OL have gotten “soft”, yet able to face 60+ collisions weekly from athletic beasts like these. It must be comfortable sitting behind a keyboard and calling players “soft.”
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Ok. Back in the day football players didn’t make “business decisions” or sit out a game because their feelings were hurt. They dealt with 2-a-days and padded practices and coaches who would run them on hard practices whenever they screwed up in games. They were inherently tougher and those guys were almost forced to be in shape and that resulted in fewer injuries. Now, many players avoid “work” as a matter of principle as long as they still can get paid. Yeah, that’s comparatively “soft” “shady” or whatever word you may find offensive. Many guys push through everything and do their best on game day but way too many of today’s players do as little as possible because they are more concerned with their personal brand than the success of the team.

I dont think Miami will have trouble scoring if they game plan to pass the football. The Packers defense is the worst in the NFL against the pass. They basically play a pass prevent defense the entire game. Quick passes on screens and slants should be the calls for Sunday. Green Bay plays the run decent, so that wont get the Dolphins a win. It just isnt hard to outscore the Packers these days. The packers average 24 points per game on offense and their defense is giving up like 26 per game. Not the same Packers as what they had a few years ago. They aren’t very competitive this year. The.players just dont seem to care.

FinFan68 says: “Ok. Back in the day football players didn’t make “business decisions” or sit out a game because their feelings were hurt. They dealt with 2-a-days and padded practices and coaches who would run them on hard practices whenever they screwed up in games.”
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Seriously, “business decisions”? Why do you think John Riggins sat out the 1980 season when the Redskins refused to renegotiate his $300k contract? Or All-Pros John Hannah & Leon Gray in the 70s? Or Eric Dickerson in 1985? Embarassing you don’t know the history of football.

And there’s no more 2-a-days because every player is in shape 365 days a year. They watch their diet and train throughout the off-season. They work harder now that ever before, especially when the playbook has tripled in size.

akira1971 says:
November 10, 2018 at 2:15 pm
FinFan68 says: “Ok. Back in the day football players didn’t make “business decisions” or sit out a game because their feelings were hurt. They dealt with 2-a-days and padded practices and coaches who would run them on hard practices whenever they screwed up in games.”
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Seriously, “business decisions”? Why do you think John Riggins sat out the 1980 season when the Redskins refused to renegotiate his $300k contract? Or All-Pros John Hannah & Leon Gray in the 70s? Or Eric Dickerson in 1985? Embarassing you don’t know the history of football.

And there’s no more 2-a-days because every player is in shape 365 days a year. They watch their diet and train throughout the off-season. They work harder now that ever before, especially when the playbook has tripled in size.
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Contract disputes are not what I meant by “business decisions”. It was in the context of players being “soft” although I admittedly used players in general rather than just offensive linemen. I could have easily used Jonathan Martin in my example because he is the poster child for “soft” (OL this time). I was referring to the players who make “business decisions” on the field during the game. You know, like actively avoiding tackling (while on defense) not trying to make a catch because there might be a safety in the vicinity and stuff like that. Comparing my actual football knowledge recall with your ability to “google” is just silly. You invalidate much of your argument with terms like “every”. Was Jamarcus Russell always in shape? Haynesworth? Trent Richardson? Kelvin Benjamin? You can probably find a DL on many teams who report to camp severely out of football shape. I’m not knocking these guys who are inherently large anyway but I am questioning your logic as to why less practices are done. The real answer is less work for the pay. It was a point of contention in the CBA battle.

freefromwhatyouare says:
The Packers defense is #15 in the NFL. Have slipped a bit from the top 10 D the
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Take into consideration the past 2 games were against the best of the NFC and AFC.
Not to mention the amount of miles flying from coast to coast. It takes a toll.

Packers defense is not as bad as many say and not as good a others say. Weak offensive team at home. They will play well, Rodgers had better be ready to run. Offensive line is bad and has been for most of the year.

Packers have not lost at home this year and need this game to stay alive.. Fins have won only 1 time in their last 10 on the road. Dolphins offense put zero TD’d on the board last week and that was at home. Any given Sunday.